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Short Fat Stubby Finger Stories Presents:

Episode 43

   “I have no idea what I really saw in there,” Joseph stated the minute that they drove off from the garage, “but it was a lot more than a trip on petrol fumes I can assure you.   It scared half my life out of me.   I think that we should try to get back to town in time to see that garage mechanic and ask him more about it.   He seemed to know more than he was willing to divulge.   There was a knife that was floating in the air, you know, and it did try to kill me.   And I just realised something.  It had jewels on its handle.”

   “I don’t disbelieve you, Joseph.”   Martin replied in a subdued voice.   “But I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary until I came across you lying on the floor.  However, I will admit to finding an unsettling aura in the room.   Something did not seem right, but I assumed my thinking involved you, and your current disposition.   I am sorry if I doubted you earlier.   You said just now that the knife had jewels on the handle.   You don’t suppose that it was this Punjaniti thing that you saw, do you?   The knife seemed very similar in detail to how Rosetta described the one her father had brought back with the statue.”

   “An ancient god living in a photograph in the twenty first century?  I doubt it, Martin.  I know that accommodation is declining world wide, but I doubt that it is that bad just yet … even for a monster from Mars, or wherever it originated.   Mind you, there is a belief in some countries that photographs can steal souls, but I don’t even know what that thing was.   I certainly don’t think that it had a soul … and I don’t think that thing was human either.   Maybe it was one of the local soothsayer’s pets from the other world.”

   “Soothsayer?”  Martin asked in  surprise.

“The man we met yesterday: Laurie.   Didn’t he say that he was some kind of white witch?   The protector of the village?   Or perhaps it was the chief of the bad guy witches  that has a connection with it?   Perhaps the creature bit the hands of those that fed it.   Anyway let’s just forget it for a while.   It was unreal.   It could never have happened.   A strange monster could not have risen from its cave deep inside a photograph of a farmhouse and  try to decapitate me.  It was my imagination … surely?   Imagination inspired by the vapours from the grease and oils as you so rightly put it.”

“Are you having doubts about our mission, Joseph – even after what we have encountered over the past day and a bit?”

“Yes, to be honest.   Especially after what we have been told by the locals,  and what happened to Rosetta last night.   When Rosetta first told me about her father, the background to his recent life, and what was needed to be done it all sounded a bit like the outline of a new India Jones movie, but a bit of a hoot at the same time.    To be perfectly honest Rosetta is an extremely beautiful woman and I found her and her story totally beguiling.so I had no problem offering to help her.   But now, after what happened to me in that garage just now, it has made me bring everything into question.   When you think about it, the whole thing seems incredulous.   Too incredulous to take it all seriously.    There are parts of the events that ring as possible truths: Rosetta’s father did find a statue and a knife that once was in possession of a cult.   There is no reason to doubt that the Punjani exist and are paying Ravi to return it to them.   There is no doubt that Rosetta and her father are both in a life-threatening coma and require help.   There is no doubt that their condition was brought about by an unlawful injection by person or persons unknown.  And there is no reason to doubt that the Punjani do have an antidote that will save both of them.  But that is where truth disappears from our story.

Whilst the statue seemingly does exist, whether it is connected to some demonic god of yore or not is irrelevant.   What is relevant is that the Punjani want it and are willing to pay for its return by way of the antidote for Rosetta’s father, and now Rosetta.   And that is all that we should be concentrating on – finding the statue, getting the antidote and getting out of this damned weird little village.   No more thoughts of the world ending, invasions  by gigantic demons, no more sci-fi, or dead bodies smouldering on an ever-burning carpet.   No more tales of witches and ghosts of the long gone past.   We are letting coincidences and imagination play too big a part of our lives at the moment.   We need to momentarily clear our minds, start over from scratch, and set our minds on double checking what clues we have … and at the same time try to uncover new clues.   Our time is precious.   We need to utilise every second we have and get this all sorted by no later than tomorrow … for everybody’s good.”

Joseph’s outburst took Martin by surprise, and it caused him to reflect on the reason for his original question.   Several seconds elapsed before he finally got the courage to continue with his attempt to relate to Joseph the new information regarding their quest that he had received the previous night.   Important information that he had been forced to retain unshared in his mind as a result of the attack on Rosetta.   Joseph’s words had given Martin the assurance that what he wanted to share with him, was not going to be well received.   But he knew that it had to be done

   “Maybe it’s just using it as a base or something until it can enter our world .”   Martin eventually offered.

   Joseph looked at Martin and thought about his suggestion. 

   “I have read about spirits that supposedly use a medium to make contact with the living, regardless of the feelings of  their chosen medium who may very well prefer not to be involved.    Perhaps something is using the photograph of the farm because the objects of its desire are still there.   But why would it show me the people I saw there?”  In fact why would it show me anything, far less attack me.   If it wanted me to see something useful to somebody else it could have chosen a far better way than to frighten the life out of me.

   “Maybe it was trying to kill you.  Perhaps it may have recognised you as its mortal enemy and decided to get rid of you for once and all,” Martin laughed, and then suddenly his voice adopted a slightly more serious tone.  “Perhaps it wasn’t the Punjaniti that tried to make contact with you.   Maybe somebody else is channelling in on the photograph.   Perhaps you were meant to see it.”

   “You suddenly seemed well informed on all things abnormal, Martin.   What’s going on?    Are you suddenly in league with the witches, white or otherwise?   Or is your mind deteriorating in all this fresh country air.   The whole thing is ridiculous.   Even Raji and his Punjanas.    Sounds like bananas, doesn’t it?   Which is probably where you and I are heading.   You were right the first time, Martin … the garage was full of fumes, and that is what gave me the delusion that people were running around inside a stupid, and badly taken, photograph being chased by demons.   And now it seems to have affected you as well by becoming sucked into my imagination.   I am truly becoming worried that at the end of the day Rosetta and her father will be no better off than they are now.   And they might stay that way forever.   Let’s just hope and pray that we find that stupid statue and the Punjani are true to their word about the antidote working.”

   Martin didn’t reply at first, instead, for a second or two, he took his eyes off the road and looked hard at Joseph as if he was deciding whether to say anything or not, then finally he turned his eyes back to the road and spoke. 

    “Joseph, it is obvious that you are both worried and frustrated, and tired no doubt, as I am.   And, yes, the whole thing does seem like something conjured up by Stephen King or H.G.Wells.   But there is something that I must tell you.   Last night, after you left, the hotel manger, William Jones and I had a rather lengthy chat.  Or, at least we were, until the news of you and Rosetta was relayed downstairs.  It appears that he is some kind of intermediary between the unknown and humans.  Not like some of those fake spiritualists and mediums that you hear about, but the genuine article.  He was able to tell me exactly what had happened yesterday afternoon at the farm, even to the point where you threw that chicken over the rug and it exploded.   He knows why we were here in the village.   He told me that we were being warned that we were up against something that we didn’t yet know how to handle, something very dangerous, and that we were in a lot deeper than we imagined.   But this was not a warning for us to butt out and mind our own business – it was the complete opposite.    It was given in an attempt to give us a hand in completing  our task.   He also told me that our visit was preordained, and that it had been manipulated by a very interested party on the other side.”

   “On the other side of, what exactly?”  Joseph asked with a disbelieving smile of on his face.   “The side fence, our choice in politics, the other side of the world?   What did he mean, Martin … spooks and demons and all that sort of thing?”

   Martin shrugged.  “He didn’t elaborate, he just said the other side – I didn’t press the point, and of course we were interrupted before he had finished the conversation … so I never got the chance to ask any questions.   But that doesn’t matter, he wants me to bring you and Mary to see him and he will explain more.   You in particular.   He said Mary was deeply involved in our quest, though she was unaware that she was, as was somebody else that we hadn’t yet met: the village doctor: Peter James – I think that he said that was the doctor’s name.   Oh, and that fellow Laurie and his niece Malena we met at the hotel yesterday.  Apparently we are all part of a bigger game that’s being played out … a much, much bigger game. There were two or three others involved, William said. but he didn’t mention their name.   He said that they would become involved when their time was right.   He was starting to tell me something about what happened to some local witches at the farmhouse when he got called away because of what had happened to you and Rosetta.”

   “Yes, poor Rosetta.”   Joseph momentarily transferred his thoughts to Rosetta.  To what had happened to her.   To the guilt he felt because in his mind he had convinced himself that had he arrived at the room a minute earlier he could have saved her.   For the umpteenth time since he had regained consciousness in Rosetta’s bathroom a cloud of anger rolled through his mind and without thinking he began to direct his anger and frustration to the nearest target … Martin.   “Tell me, Martin,” Joseph snarled, his tongue dripping with sarcasm and disbelief at Martin’s acceptance of an obvious con man.   “Your clairvoyant, William the hotel manager, did he tell you what happened to Rosetta, why she was attacked … or who the wild man at the farm was?   It could very well have been him that broke into the room.” 

   Martin ignored the tone in Joseph’s voice, because he too felt anger inside him at being unable to protect his friend.  “No.” he replied, “William had described his appearance at the farm exactly the way it had occurred,  knew that he existed, and said that it was possible that he did know who he was, but said it was better that we found out for ourselves in order to deal with the situation when the time comes.   What William explained to me, or at least, the way that I understood it, he has ‘visits’ from a guardian whose task it is to protect the village.  Perhaps William was describing a much wider scope of protection, I am not absolutely certain, there was so much to take in, but I do know for certain that the village was under the guardian’s protection for some particular reason.   But, again, I am unclear as to whether William suggested the reason for the protection during the conversation, or simply mentioned it in passing..   I am sorry if I am a bit vague, but it had been a long day, I had had a few drinks and what William was telling me was blowing my mind as the young people say.

   “You’re sure that you weren’t talking to Rod Serling?,” Joseph laughed.

   “Who?”  Martin asked quizzically.

   “The Twilight Zone!   T.V. show in the sixties and eighties.  All sci-fi and supernatural things.   What you are telling me is something that show would come up with.    It’s all fantasy, Martin.”   Joseph replied, barely able to suppress further laughter, but Martin simply rolled his eyes and continued with his story.   

   “It is William’s job to call up the appropriate power to deflect the evil when he senses its appearance in the village or the surrounding areas.   Apparently, under normal circumstances, this is not too hard to accomplish.   It would appear that the ‘evil’ that exists in the village is usually something that the local band of would-be witches conjure up by accident and have no experience in controlling.   Apparently there are hundreds of non-human entities that have resided in the woods and fields that surround the village over the centuries, the majority of which have been successfully banished into a phantom zone …. a time that exists somewhere between our time and their past time, sandwiched somewhere between yesterday and today.   Unfortunately for the village the Trenthamville witches have somehow come in possession of an ancient manuscript which deals with calling these strange beings back into our time, and when they arrive in the village their first victims are usually  the witches themselves.   Then the witches find that they cannot reverse the spell and it is up to William to correct the situation before it gets too far out of hand.    Of course, the witches have no idea that it is William that saves them, and he prefers it this way.   The witches think that the creatures that they have conjured up have gone into hiding and are still somewhere in the woods.

   William says that he is a true white witch, and has had training so that he can reverse these incarnations relatively easily.   But the day Rosetta’s father arrived in the village something totally demonic came with him, and William is still trying to grasp the enormity of this intrusion.  He has no idea as to how to handle the situation, however, his spiritual advisor, the guardian, has told him that in this particular instance he can only guide.   The real power to destroy this evil lies somewhere between the ten of us.   With you, me and Mary playing the major roles.”

   Joseph found this conversation getting more bizarre by the minute and decided that a change of conversation was in order.

   “Wow, the British Avengers, U.K. bad asses on the trail of creatures from outer space.   Who would have thought,”   Joseph noted in a sarcastic tone.   “And I forgot to take my radioactive supplement this morning at breakfast.   I sure hope that I don’t need to use my super-powers before I have my dinner.”

   “There’s no need to be sarcastic, Joseph.”   Martin scalded,   “Some super-powers might have saved Rosetta last night.   And for that matter, you may just have been lucky that they left just as you arrived, or you may very well have joined her.”

   “I’m sorry, Martin, it’s just that it all sounds so ridiculous   I am no more a super-hero than I am an ex-Beatle or a movie star.   But you are right … I was very lucky.   Poor Rosetta will now need our help every bit as much as her father does.   It is rather ironic that she suffered a similar fate to her father while trying to help him.  The nurse told me that the doctor had suggested that whatever had been injected in her should wear off in a few days, however I doubt that.   It is my guess that it is the same drug that placed her father into a coma.   But how do we suggest that to anybody without bringing suspicion on ourselves … especially when you consider the background to the story, and our dealings with the Punjani.   And how can we explain what we seem to have gotten ourselves into to the police should they become involved.   I have no idea who did this to her, or why, but I doubt that it was the Punjani because they had nothing to gain.   And while it is possible that it was them and they assumed that we had already located the whereabouts of the statue, it is doubtful that they would make the same mistake twice and take Rosetta out of the equation before they found out where it was.   And, of course, we haven’t identified its whereabouts.   Nor do we have anything that gives us a clue to where it is hiding.   To me this suggests that there is somebody else interested in the statue and they might be trying to scare us off.   I think that the quicker that we find the statue, and exchange it for the antidote, the better it will be for all.   I may feel inwardly that whatever it is these parties believe the statue will give them, they are in for a huge disappointment, but, at the same time, I don’t want to find us caught up in some kind of cult gang war.    And when we do find it, I certainly hope that the Punjani are in a generous mood and supply us with enough antidote to bring Rosetta back into our world as well as her father.”

   “Yes.  Don’t worry, Joseph, we will … I am absolutely sure of it.  How is your head feeling?”

   “The pain killers are working well, thanks, but I’ve brought the whole packet just in case.”

   “That was some fall you had.  Your head must be rock solid.  You managed to nearly split a small table in half and smash a vase into a thousand pieces … and didn’t even get a scratch.  If it had been me I think that I would have bled to death before they found me.”   Martin said jokingly in order to keep the conversation light-hearted.   He knew Joseph’s reaction to what he had told him about William was  justified.   It seemed a lot to take in, but as he, himself, had begun questioning the situation there had been things that William had said in the conversation that had made Martin believe in what he was being told.   ‘Joseph will come around in time,’ he thought, ‘no need to keep bumbling along with it at the moment.   And Joseph had been right, there were more important things to be done first, things like locating the statue’.

********

   Joseph simply grunted in reply to Martin’s jovial comments as his head begun thumping again, and he said no more as his mind set about controlling the action of his hand and prevented it from taking a premature pain killer.   ‘Four hours apart,’ he reminded himself, ‘not two if I want not to get sick.

********

   They drove on in silence for a while – then Joseph spoke again, “Martin.  Sorry I was so short a few minutes ago.   I was just thinking about what I said earlier.   “Are we to assume that Rosetta was also attacked by the Punjani?   Are we absolutely certain that it wasn’t somebody else?”

   “My guess would be that we should suspect the Punjani.  Who else could it be?”

   “But why would they do that?   If they had already found the statue then they would not have needed to bother us.  And if they still needed us to help them find them then they would not have tried to hinder us in our investigation.  No – I don’t think that it was the Punjani.   But I have no idea who that could be.   Considering the state of the room somebody must have thought that Rosetta had something that they wanted, but I have no idea what.”

   “Perhaps it was the diary?”

   “No, it was still sitting on the sideboard after I came to.  I remember seeing it, though it’s not much good to us now that Rosetta can’t interpret it.”

   “What about the ring?”

   “No.  I have that.  Rosetta gave it to me just before she left us after dinner.”

   “Perhaps the person who attacked her didn’t realize that.  Maybe that’s why they tore her clothes off.  Perhaps they were checking that she wasn’t wearing it on her body on a chain or something.”

   “There’s a strong possibility that you are right, Martin.  But if it wasn’t the Punjani, then who the hell was it?”

   “I don’t know, but here we are.”  Martin swung the wheel hard and dropped back on his speed as they made their way up the dirt road that was the entrance to Foster’s farm … and as he did so he failed to notice the long, black, shiny limousine driven by the diminutive roly-poly man that had been following them since they left the garage.

********

   The limousine continued to drive slowly past the farm until Joseph and Martin were out of sight – then it reversed and also went up the driveway, stopping just out of sight from anyone looking back from the farm.  The driver got out of the car and walked up the remainder of the small hill that the driveway was on.   Safely hidden by the last of the tall trees he observed where the other cars were situated before returning to the limousine and parking it behind the barn in much the same fashion that Mary had done the previous day.

********

Go to Episode 44